Jennifer Burns

He spends most of his career doing historical research, economic research, pulling data from how people actually make economic decisions and live in the world and using them to test and refine his theories. Where Rand, to some degree, we could say she's empirical in that she lives through the Russian Revolution and takes a very big lesson from that.

But her style of thinking is really first principles, an axiomatic approach. going from the basic idea of rationality and then playing that out in different spheres. And so those are just very different intellectual approaches. And then they lead in some ways to really different ways of thinking about how you get things done in the world. Ayn Rand is a purist.

But her style of thinking is really first principles, an axiomatic approach. going from the basic idea of rationality and then playing that out in different spheres. And so those are just very different intellectual approaches. And then they lead in some ways to really different ways of thinking about how you get things done in the world. Ayn Rand is a purist.

But her style of thinking is really first principles, an axiomatic approach. going from the basic idea of rationality and then playing that out in different spheres. And so those are just very different intellectual approaches. And then they lead in some ways to really different ways of thinking about how you get things done in the world. Ayn Rand is a purist.

She wants to start with the pure belief. She doesn't want it to be diluted. One of her favorite sayings was, it's earlier than you think. In other words, we're still moving towards a place where we can really hold and express these ideals purely. Friedman, although he didn't use this terminology, was much more half a loaf guy.

She wants to start with the pure belief. She doesn't want it to be diluted. One of her favorite sayings was, it's earlier than you think. In other words, we're still moving towards a place where we can really hold and express these ideals purely. Friedman, although he didn't use this terminology, was much more half a loaf guy.

She wants to start with the pure belief. She doesn't want it to be diluted. One of her favorite sayings was, it's earlier than you think. In other words, we're still moving towards a place where we can really hold and express these ideals purely. Friedman, although he didn't use this terminology, was much more half a loaf guy.

You know, like, I'll take what I can get and then I'll try to move to where I really want to be. But he is able to compromise, especially when he moves from being an economist into being more of a political thinker. And so that's a really different intellectual style. And then it also plays out in their lives in that Ayn Rand is incredibly schismatic.

You know, like, I'll take what I can get and then I'll try to move to where I really want to be. But he is able to compromise, especially when he moves from being an economist into being more of a political thinker. And so that's a really different intellectual style. And then it also plays out in their lives in that Ayn Rand is incredibly schismatic.

You know, like, I'll take what I can get and then I'll try to move to where I really want to be. But he is able to compromise, especially when he moves from being an economist into being more of a political thinker. And so that's a really different intellectual style. And then it also plays out in their lives in that Ayn Rand is incredibly schismatic.

I mean, she wants her friends to believe what she believes and support what she supports. And she's willing to break a relationship if it doesn't match. Milton Friedman, he also does tend to have friends who agree with him. yet he's always willing to debate his opponents and he's willing to do so with a smile on his face.

I mean, she wants her friends to believe what she believes and support what she supports. And she's willing to break a relationship if it doesn't match. Milton Friedman, he also does tend to have friends who agree with him. yet he's always willing to debate his opponents and he's willing to do so with a smile on his face.

I mean, she wants her friends to believe what she believes and support what she supports. And she's willing to break a relationship if it doesn't match. Milton Friedman, he also does tend to have friends who agree with him. yet he's always willing to debate his opponents and he's willing to do so with a smile on his face.

You know, he's the kind of, he's the happy warrior and he actually will win a lot of debates simply by his emotional affect and his cheerfulness and his confidence where Rand will lose debates because she gets so angry in the face of disagreement. So yeah, they have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences and it's been really fascinating to kind of dive deep into both of them.

You know, he's the kind of, he's the happy warrior and he actually will win a lot of debates simply by his emotional affect and his cheerfulness and his confidence where Rand will lose debates because she gets so angry in the face of disagreement. So yeah, they have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences and it's been really fascinating to kind of dive deep into both of them.

You know, he's the kind of, he's the happy warrior and he actually will win a lot of debates simply by his emotional affect and his cheerfulness and his confidence where Rand will lose debates because she gets so angry in the face of disagreement. So yeah, they have a lot of similarities and a lot of differences and it's been really fascinating to kind of dive deep into both of them.

Yeah, I mean, people talked about her meeting her and coming to believe in her ideas in a similar way as they did with Marxism in that suddenly everything made sense and that when they came to believe in objectivism, they felt they had this engine for understanding the entire world. Now, after a while, for most people, that then became confining. But yeah, that certainty.

Yeah, I mean, people talked about her meeting her and coming to believe in her ideas in a similar way as they did with Marxism in that suddenly everything made sense and that when they came to believe in objectivism, they felt they had this engine for understanding the entire world. Now, after a while, for most people, that then became confining. But yeah, that certainty.

Yeah, I mean, people talked about her meeting her and coming to believe in her ideas in a similar way as they did with Marxism in that suddenly everything made sense and that when they came to believe in objectivism, they felt they had this engine for understanding the entire world. Now, after a while, for most people, that then became confining. But yeah, that certainty.

And Friedman had some of that as well. He clothed it differently. He clothed it in happiness, where Rand kind of closed it, as you said, in crankiness or anger. I mean, there's also an arc to Rand. She gets kind of angrier and angrier and crankier and crankier over the course of her life.